Black Men and Public Spaces

Luisa Zaragoza
English 101
Black Men and Public Spaces
Journal & Questions
Questions on Meaning: 1. In “Black Men and Public Spaces,” Brent Staples the author, claims how he uncomfortable and bothered of how others view him, due to the fact he is African American. I believe the purpose of this essay is for the readers to realize that stereotypes don’t always have to be real. What I mean by this is that, if you are black you are not always going to be dangerous, wearing baggy clothes, and a gun inside your jacket. He is accused of many things that he doesn’t do just due to the fact he is a young black man, which white people are terrified off. He is an educated according to the reading and he doesn’t believe in violence. The purpose of this is to people to recognize that innocent lives are ending due to these stereotypes of discrimination and fake accusations. “Altering Public Space in Ugly Ways,” I believe that he uses his experiences and others that people are scared of people are assuming black men are potentially violent. An example in the book is with the young white lady, which he describes in the book as his first victim. This lady in front of Brent Staples was walking and he says she was not comfortable with the space he gave to her. She started walking faster and faster until, she eventually ran, and went away. She thought something bad was going to happen, but as Staples says he enjoys talking walks during the night due to his insomnia. He has never felt comfortable around people as they’re mind is basically survival of the fittest they will stay away to any possible harm, Brent Staples wants to avoid invading personal space. As he states, “ I now take precautions to make myself less threating.” She is writing that during the nights of late evening he is walking with care around people. Questions on Writing Strategy:

1. The concept of Altering Public Space is abstract, but Brent Staples really convinces the reader that it occurs due to...

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Tyrone a young black man, born and raised in the South Bronx, wanted nothing but the best to
succeed for his future. A straight A student in college. Never once in trouble with the law, was
wrongfully accused of murder. Tyrone was minding his business walking to his local bodega, when this
innocent lady was robbed and stabbed to death right in front of him. The black man who committed the
crime fled the scene. Tyrone was there when this all happened. The police arrived to the scene right away to question all the witnesses; they all accused Tyrone because he was the only black man in the area. Tyrone an innocent black man had experienced what “BlackMen and PublicSpace” deal with almost every day.
Brent Staple’s essay, “BlackMen and PublicSpace” discloses the racial profiling and ignorance he experiences out in publicspaces from others as a young black man into his older age. Staples’ shares with his readers some of his personal encounters when he was stereotyped by his physical appearance. Staples’ also illustrates his inner struggle of acceptance of not being feared no more. In today’s society many blackmen have given a bad...

...﻿BlackMen and PublicSpace
Brent Staples
Brent Staples (b. 1951), the oldest of nine children, was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. His father was a truck driver who lost his job along with 40,000 other workers in the 1960s because of plant closings in the area. The family was reduced to poverty. Staples had never considered college until a college professor took an interest in him and encouraged him to apply to a program that recruited black students. He enrolled at Widener University (B.A. 1973), where he excelled and received a Danforth Fellowship for graduate study. He took a Ph.D. in behavioral psychology at the University of Chicago in 1977. From 1977 to 1981 he taught psychology at several colleges in Pennsylvania and Illinois, but a job as a report for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1982 and 1983 began his shift to journalism. He began writing for the New York Times in 1983 and has served on the editorial board of that newspaper, for which he writes opinion pieces on race, social problems, politics, and contemporary culture.
In 1994, Staples published the autobiographical Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White, which won the Anisfield Wolff Book Award and in which “BlackMen and PublicSpace” appears. The Term publicspace is just 30 years old, and definitions vary. One definition states that...

...Eng90
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Black People Perceived
In life they are some things that most people believe are right however, it does not is right, so a lot of people have problem with other ideas. Brent Staples in his essay gives us an example for this, some people have a problem with dark skin or any color unlike them self. Specifically the black man because they think he is a bad man and never talk with them. Additionally, some people think black people are murderers and use drugs.
Staples write, “It was in the echo of that terrified woman's footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I'd come into – the ability to alter publicspace in ugly ways. It was clear that she thought herself the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse. Suffering a bout of insomnia” (Staples 294). He said, that the women had feelings, she is afraid of him and he thinks she thought he is a murderer and dangerous, just because he was black. This is not fair and I ask how he was feeling in the event? He talked about black man but he meant that all black people have a huge problem in the black community.
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...Dylan Cruz English12/23/11 BlackMen and PublicSpace
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...This reflective essay “BlackMen and PublicSpaces” by Brent Staples, argues about the author’s personal struggles for being a black man, in his twenties, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Brent Staples was born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania but he finished his studies and began working as a journalist in Chicago and New York City. Staples writes about some stories that gradually led him to realize over the fear of being judged by his race. In “BlackMen and PublicSpaces”, Staples let us become aware of his attitude and the way he perceive the situations he presents.
To begin with his story, Staples presents a white woman who he comes across walking in the streets. He states that just by looking at him, she started to run until he could no longer see her. That first scenario made him realize of what being an african american man or what his “inheritance” (p. 336) will cause, if he was seen in a publicspace. This because of the stereotype blackmen suffer of being rapist or a thief. Later in the essay, he tells about white people’s actions in the intersections whenever he passed by a car or crossed the streets. For example, the driver will automatically put down the locks, or the pedestrians will cross in another direction.
Also, he explains how in his own work as a journalist, his...

...BlackMen And PublicSpace
In the essay “BlackMen And PublicSpace,” by Brent Staples, he argues that he
has been racially stereotyped, and has been falsely assumed to be a threat to the safety of
those around him. In this essay I will start by showing examples of how he is stereotyped,
why he is stereotyped, what he goes through as being stereotyped, and how your image
can affect you being stereotyped.
Staples provides many examples of how people are stereotyped in everyday life,
and a threat to others. He uses examples of a woman as his first victim in Chicago who
was terrified by him, by misjudging him as a robber or a murderer. Staples writes, “To her
the youngest black man a broad six feet two inches with a bears and billowing hair , both
hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket-seemed menacingly
Close. (Staples 154). The women who was walking down the street, well dressed, saw
someone who was African-American and got scared, and immediately started running
across the street. The woman saw him as a threatening person and perceived him as very
dangerous.
a society as culturally diverse as the one we live in, you would think that people would learn to be more accepting of others. Nevertheless, there are still those who simply cannot. In his essay Black...

...BlackMen and PublicSpace Essay
In Brent Staples’ personal essay “BlackMen and PublicSpace”, he tells the readers what happen to a young black man in an urban setting. He pinpointed that people often stereotype you because of color, race, gender, culture or appearance. In addition, the author expresses to us that he notices the space between him and other people, such as women on the street. Some people may disagree that women set a certain amount of space when walking by a black man on the street. This statement is not true and publicspace is not about race, gender, color, culture, or appearance.
Do we as a people stereotype other people because of race or gender? I believe that race plays a big role when viewing other people, either if were walking down the street or walking into the store. We have a specific view of people from other races and even their own. For example, a black businesswoman might stereotype another woman from her own race because she may not have the same attire as her or grew up in a different area. A white businesswoman might look down on another white women who make less money than her like she is no one, which is not true. But back to Staples’, he once said that a woman cast worried glance at Staples when she saw him walking down...